Suppression of discovery of mobile devices in a wireless network

ABSTRACT

Technologies are generally described for suppressing discovery of mobile devices in a wireless ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) network, reducing the number of network transmissions by devices in the network and reducing network congestion and prolonging battery life. A mobile device may add supplementary information to introductory beacons transmitted by the device that indicate no response is necessary from other devices participating in the network except for a coordinator of the network. The mobile device may transmit a malformed introductory beacon that will be ignored by other devices in the network except for the coordinator. The coordinator of the wireless network may detect the mobile device moving through the network and transmit a suppression signal to other devices in the network causing the devices to ignore the introductory beacons transmitted by the mobile device.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of co-pending U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 13/121,964, nationalized on Mar. 31, 2011, and titled“Suppression of Discovery of Mobile Devices in a Wireless Network,”which is the national stage application filed under 37 CFR 1.371 ofInternational Application No. PCT/US10/58486, filed Dec. 1, 2010, titled“Suppression of Discovery of Mobile Devices in a Wireless Network,”which are both expressly incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND

Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in thissection are not prior art to the claims in this application and are notadmitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.

Ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) depends heavily on wireless networkingtechnology to support the automatic participation of many everydayobjects in a computing environment. Example solutions for wirelesscommunications for networks of ubicomp devices include wireless localarea network (WLAN) technology or wireless personal area network (WPAN)technology. Related network solutions may include BLUETOOTH, ZIGBEE,WIRELESSHART, WI-FI, MIFI, and various other wireless communicationsolutions and technologies promulgated by the IEEE 802 working groups.

A wireless ubicomp network may have many devices participating in thenetwork. For example, a ZIGBEE network implemented in a home may havehundreds of connected devices, including light switches, outlets,thermostats, appliances, remote controls, motion sensors, securitysensors, controllers, coordinating devices, and the like. Many of thesedevices may be connected to a fixed power supply, while others mayoperate on battery power. In addition, some of the devices, such aslight switches, outlets, and thermostats, may be fixed at a particularlocation, while others, such as remote controls and key fobs, may be“mobile” and move throughout the home.

A device in the ubicomp network may communicate directly with otherdevices within range of the wireless transmissions. In addition, somedevices may forward or repeat transmissions to other devices withinrange, allowing a tree or mesh networking topology to be constructed. Adevice in the network may discover the other devices within range bybroadcasting an introductory beacon, typically during a designatedbeacon period. The device may then listen for responses to theintroductory beacon and exchange information with the respondingdevices, such as the identity of the network, the type of the respondingdevice, other remote devices reachable through a responding device, andthe like.

While it may take significant energy to engage in this device discoveryprocess, the process is typically only performed on the occasion of anew device being added to the wireless ubicomp network. However, amobile device moving through the physical topology of the network maycause a cascade of device discovery processes, as the mobile devicemoves out-of-range of one set of devices on the network and in-range ofa new set of devices. This repetition of the discovery process may becompounded in WPAN ubicomp networks, such as a ZIGBEE network, that havesignificantly smaller wireless communication range, often in thesingle-digit meters. The repetition of the discovery process in ashort-range wireless network with high mobility devices can lead tonetwork congestion and increased power usage, dramatically reducing theoperational life of battery-powered devices in the network.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure generally describes some computer-implementedmethods for reducing network transmissions in a wireless ubicomp networkby suppressing responses to introductory beacons transmitted by a mobiledevice moving through the network. According to some example methods,the mobile device adds supplementary information to the introductorybeacons indicating that no response to the introductory beacons isnecessary by other devices participating in the network except for thecoordinator. In other example methods, the mobile device transmits amalformed introductory beacon that will be ignored by other devices inthe network except for the coordinator. In yet further example methods,the coordinator of the wireless network detects the mobile device movingthrough the network and transmits a suppression signal to other devicesin the network causing the devices to ignore the introductory beaconstransmitted by the mobile device.

The present disclosure generally describes some computer-readablestorage media. Some example computer-readable storage media includecomputer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by amobile device in a wireless ubicomp network, cause the mobile device toadd supplementary information to introductory beacons transmitted by themobile device that indicated no response is necessary from other devicesparticipating in the network except for the coordinator of the network.Other example computer storage media include computer-executableinstructions stored thereon that, when executed by a coordinator of awireless ubicomp network, cause the coordinator to detect a mobiledevice moving through the network and transmit a suppression signal tothe devices participating in the network that cause some of the devicesto ignore any introductory beacons transmitted by the mobile device.

The foregoing summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be inany way limiting. In addition to the illustrative aspects, embodiments,and features described above, further aspects, embodiments, and featureswill become apparent by reference to the drawings and the followingdetailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

The foregoing and other features of this disclosure will become morefully apparent from the following description and appended claims, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Understanding that thesedrawings depict only several embodiments in accordance with thedisclosure and are, therefore, not to be considered limiting of itsscope, the disclosure will be described with additional specificity anddetail through use of the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example operating environmentof a wireless ubicomp network;

FIGS. 2-4 are flow diagrams illustrating example methods for suppressingdiscovery of mobile devices in a wireless network;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an example computing device; and

FIG. 6 is a schematic illustrating a partial view of an example computerprogram product that includes a computer program for executing acomputer process on a computing device; all arranged according to atleast some embodiments presented herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following detailed description, reference is made to theaccompanying drawings, which form a part hereof. In the drawings,similar symbols typically identify similar components, unless contextdictates otherwise. The illustrative embodiments described in thedetailed description, drawings, and claims are not meant to be limiting.Other embodiments may be utilized, and other changes may be made,without departing from the spirit or scope of the subject matterpresented herein. It will be readily understood that the aspects of thepresent disclosure, as generally described herein, and illustrated inthe figures can be arranged, substituted, combined, separated, anddesigned in a wide variety of different configurations, all of which areexplicitly contemplated herein.

This disclosure is generally drawn, inter alia, to methods, apparatus,systems, and computer program products related to suppressing responsesto introductory beacons transmitted by mobile devices in a wirelessnetwork. In a wireless network having a large number of ubicomp devices,a mobile device moving through the physical topology of the network maycause a cascade of device discovery processes, as the mobile devicemoves out-of-range of one set of devices on the network and in-range ofa new set of devices. This repetition of the discovery process may leadto increased network transmissions within the network as well asincreased power usage of other devices in the network, dramaticallyreducing the operational life of battery-powered devices.

According to embodiments described herein, a mobile device may addsupplementary information to introductory beacons transmitted by thedevice that indicate no response is necessary from other devicesparticipating in the network except for a coordinator of the network.Alternatively, the mobile device may transmit a malformed introductorybeacon that will be ignored by some of the other devices in the networkexcept for the coordinator. In addition, the coordinator of the wirelessnetwork may detect a mobile device moving through the network andtransmit a suppression signal to the other devices causing some of thedevices to ignore the introductory beacons transmitted by the mobiledevice. By suppressing responses to the introductory beacons of mobiledevices moving through the wireless network, the number of networktransmissions in the network can be reduced and the battery life ofbattery-powered devices can be prolonged.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example operating environmentincluding an illustrative wireless network 100, arranged according to atleast some embodiments presented herein. The wireless network 100 mayinclude any number of devices, or “nodes” 102A-102G. The nodes 102A-102Gmay be referred to collectively, or in general, as nodes 102. As furthershown in FIG. 1, each of the nodes 102 may include a controller 104. Thecontroller 104 can be configured to perform various control and/orcommunication operations associated with the node 102. For example thecontroller 104 may include a wireless networking module 106 configuredto perform the discovery process between nodes 102 in the wirelessnetwork 100 as well as carry out the techniques described herein forsuppressing responses to introductory beacons transmitted by mobiledevices. The controller 104 may also be configured to interface with aradio 108 to provide wireless networking services for the node 102 onthe wireless network 100. The controller 104 may include various othermodules, wherein each module may be an electronic circuit, a statemachine, a programmable device, a microcontroller, a microprocessor, acentral processing unit (CPU), a computer program, a software module, afirmware modules, any other type of controlling mechanism, or anycombination thereof.

The nodes 102 may be embedded in ubicomp devices, such as lightswitches, outlets, thermostats, appliances, remote controls, motionsensors, security sensors, controllers, or the like, and configured tocommunicate with one another over the wireless network 100. According tosome embodiments, the wireless network 100 may be a wirelesspersonal-area network (WPAN), such as a ZIGBEE® network from ZIGBEEALLIANCE of San Ramon, Calif. The controller 104 and radio 108 includedin each of the nodes 102 in the wireless network 100 may be configuredto communicate with the other nodes and devices participating in thewireless network 100 based on the ZIGBEE specification. The nodes 102participating in the ZIGBEE network may also be referred to as ZIGBEEdevices.

It will be appreciated that each of the nodes 102 of the wirelessnetwork 100 may communicate with the other nodes of the wireless network100 according to other wireless protocols and specifications, including,but not limited to, the BLUETOOTH® specification from BLUETOOTH SIG,INC. of Bellevue, Wash.; the WIRELESSHART® specification from HARTCOMMUNICATION FOUNDATION of Austin, Tex.; the WI-FI™ protocol from WI-FIALLIANCE or Austin, Tex.; or the MIFI® specification from NOVATELWIRELESS, INC. of San Diego, Calif. It will be further appreciated thatan overall network of nodes 102 and other devices may include devicesconnected both wirelessly and wired using multiple protocols andspecifications.

According to some embodiments, the wireless network 100 may furtherinclude one or more special nodes acting in a master or coordinatingrole, referred to as “coordinators” 110A, 110B. The coordinators 110A,110B may be referred to collectively, or in general, as coordinators110. The coordinators 110 may be responsible for establishing thewireless network 100, registering the various other nodes 102A-102G ofthe wireless network 100, and maintaining full knowledge of the networktopology. Because of the role of the coordinators 110 in the wirelessnetwork 100, the coordinators 110 may tend to be embedded in the mostcapable devices in the ubicomp network with enhanced computing powerand, in most cases, a household A/C or other continuous power source.

Based on the number of nodes 102 participating in the wireless network100 and the wireless protocol utilized, the wireless network 100 may beestablished utilizing a tree or mesh topology. Some of the nodes 102 ofthe wireless network 100 may receive wireless messages from neighboringnodes or devices and forward the messages to the specified recipientthrough the networking topology. These nodes 102 may be referred to as“router nodes.” Router nodes may maintain information regarding othersof the nodes 102 in the wireless network 100 in proximity to the routernode, as well as network paths and costs to those nodes and other remotedestinations in the wireless network 100.

Router nodes may retain the ability to both transmit messages andreceive messages from other nodes and devices in the wireless network100, as well as participate in the device discovery process. Forexample, a battery-powered node 102A embedded in a thermostat maytransmit temperature or humidity changes to other nodes 102B-102F on thewireless network 100 as well as receive HVAC commands from the othernodes. Further, the thermostat device may wish to be discoverable sothat it may be controlled by sensors, remote controls, computergateways, or other devices on the wireless network 100.

Others of the nodes 102 in the wireless network 100 may only transmitmessages to the coordinator 110 or nearest router node, and may notreceive transmissions from neighboring devices. These nodes may bereferred to as “end devices” and may only be known to the coordinator110 for the wireless network 100 and possibly a neighboring router node102. End devices may include simple battery-powered devices, such as asecurity sensor, that only periodically transmit messages on thewireless network 100. For example, a battery-powered motion detector mayperiodically transmit a message to the coordinator 110, perhaps througha neighboring router node, to inform the coordinator 110 that the motiondetector remains functional in the wireless network 100. The motiondetector may also transmit a message to the coordinator 110 when motionis detected. Such end devices may operate at this reduced functionalitylevel in order to prolong the battery life of the device.

Yet others of the nodes 102 may be mobile and change position in thephysical topology of the wireless network 100 on a regular basis. Mobiledevices may include both router nodes 102 and end devices. For example,the mobile node 102G including a device embedded on a dog collar maytransmit the dog's presence or location to the coordinator 110 and othernodes 102A-102B on the wireless network 100 in proximity to the dogcollar. Other examples of mobile nodes 102G may include remote controls,key fob controllers, portable music players, handheld computing devices,or the like. It will be appreciated that such mobile devices are oftenbattery-powered and may also need to be discoverable in order toaccommodate the desired functionality.

As the mobile node 102G moves through the physical topology of thewireless network 100, the mobile node 102G may repeatedly moveout-of-range of one set of nodes 102 in the wireless network 100 andin-range of a new set of nodes or devices. This may trigger theoccurrence of repeated discovery processes on the wireless network 100.The discovery process may typically occur when an unfamiliar node 102sounds off during a beacon period on the wireless network 100. Thebeacon period may be initiated by the coordinator 110 of the wirelessnetwork 100, for example.

During the beacon period, the mobile node 102G may introduce itself tosurrounding nodes 102 or devices by broadcasting a special message,referred to herein as an introductory beacon 112. Nodes 102A, 102Bwithin receiving range of the mobile node 102G may typically respond tothe introductory beacon 112 by broadcasting introductory beacons toestablish mutual knowledge. The mobile node 102G may then exchangeinformation with the responding nodes 102A, 102B, such as the identityof the wireless network 100, the type of the responding node, otherremote nodes reachable through the responding node, or the like. Thediscovery process may take place over one or more consecutive beaconperiods on the wireless network 100.

It will be appreciated that in a large wireless network, potentiallyincluding hundreds or thousands of ubicomp devices, a single movingmobile node 102G could trigger hundreds of wireless transmissions at anygiven time. This increased messaging could impede normal network usage.In addition, when the responding nodes are located in battery-powereddevices, such as the node 102A embedded in a thermostat device, theincreased messaging may significantly reduce the operational life of thedevices on the wireless network 100. Moreover, there may be multiplemobile nodes 102G moving through the physical topology of the wirelessnetwork 100 at any point in time, further compounding these issues.

In order to reduce the increased network messaging created by therepeated discovery process, a number of methods may be implemented tosuppress the response of one or more nodes 102 in the wireless network100 to the introductory beacons broadcast by a mobile node 102G movingthrough the wireless network 100, according to some embodiments.Referring now to FIGS. 2-4, additional details will be providedregarding the embodiments presented herein for suppressing responses tointroductory beacons transmitted by the mobile node 102G. It should beappreciated that the blocks described herein may be implemented as asequence of computer implemented instructions or program modules runningon a computing device, as interconnected machine logic circuits orcircuit modules within the computing device, or some combinationthereof. The implementation is a matter of choice dependent on theperformance and other requirements of the various embodiments. Some ofthe logical operations described herein are referred to variously asstate operations, functions, structural devices, actions, or modules.These operations, functions, structural devices, actions and modules maybe implemented in software, in firmware, in special purpose digitallogic, and any combination thereof. It should also be appreciated thatin some implementations one or more of the illustrated blocks may beeliminated, combined or separated into additional blocks than thoseshown in the figures and described herein. These blocks may also beperformed sequentially, in parallel, or in a different order than thosedescribed herein.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram illustrating a process 200 for suppressing theresponse of one or more nodes 102 in the wireless network 100 to theintroductory beacons 112 broadcast by a mobile node 102G moving throughthe wireless network 100, according to at least some embodimentspresented herein. The process 200 may be performed by the wirelessnetworking module 106 on the mobile node 102G, or by a combination ofmodules and components on the mobile node 102G, the coordinator 110,and/or other nodes and devices in the wireless network 100. The process200 may include one or more operations, functions or actions asillustrated by block 210 in FIG. 2.

The process 200 may begin at block 210 (broadcast introductory beaconwith supplementary information indicating no response is necessary),where the wireless networking module 106 on the mobile node 102G may beconfigured to broadcast an introductory beacon 112 with supplementaryinformation 114 included in the message that indicates to other nodes102 of the wireless network 100 that no response is necessary unless thenode is the coordinator 110. As described above in regard to FIG. 1, theintroductory beacons 112 may be broadcast by the mobile node 102G duringa beacon period established by the coordinator 110 of the wirelessnetwork 100. According to some embodiments, the supplementaryinformation 114 may be added to the introductory beacon 112 in extrabytes of the beacon message, as defined by the specification or protocolof the wireless network 100. For example, in a ZIGBEE network, thesupplementary information 114 may be placed in the unused flag number$FC. After block 210, the process 200 may either repeat (e.g.,periodically, continuously, or on demand as needed) or terminate.

The process 200 may allow the mobile node 102G to broadcast bothdiscovery information and a suppression signal in the beacon period.Other nodes 102 in the wireless network 100 may choose to ignore theintroductory beacon 112 containing the supplementary information 114 orto respond, depending on the configuration of the node or device. Forexample, the node 102A embedded in the battery-powered thermostat devicemay choose not to respond to introductory beacons 112 containing thesupplementary information 114 in order to prolong battery life, whileanother node 102 in a device with a fixed power supply may respond tosuch introductory beacons.

If the mobile node 102G does not receive a response to the introductorybeacon 112 containing the supplementary information 114, then the mobilenode 102G may choose to send a conventional introductory beacon 112without the supplementary information 114 in a subsequent beacon period.According to some further embodiments, the coordinator 110 for thewireless network 100 may respond to introductory beacons 112 from themobile node 102G regardless of the presence or absence of thesupplementary information 114. It will be appreciated that the process200 may only be successful in suppressing discovery of the mobile node102G if one or more of the other nodes 102 in the wireless network 100are configured to read and understand the supplementary information 114contained in the introductory beacons 112. This may require, in at leastsome implementations, an extension to or modification of thespecification or protocol of the wireless network 100.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating another process 300 forsuppressing the response of one or more nodes 102 in the wirelessnetwork 100 to the introductory beacons 112 broadcast by a mobile node102G moving through the wireless network 100, according to at least someembodiments presented herein. The process 300 may be performed by thewireless networking module 106 on the mobile node 102G, or by acombination of modules and components on the mobile node 102G, thecoordinator 110, and/or other nodes and devices in the wireless network100. Process 300 may include one or more operations, functions oractions as illustrated by blocks 310, 320, and 330 in FIG. 3. Theprocess 300 may begin at block 310 (broadcast malformed introductorybeacon). Block 310 may be followed by block 320 (receive response fromcoordinator). Block 320 may be followed by block 330 (initiateintroductory transmission directly with coordinator). After block 330,processing may either repeat (e.g., periodically, continuously, or ondemand as needed) or terminate. Further details about each block will bedescribed below.

At block 310 (broadcast malformed introductory beacon), the wirelessnetworking module 106 on the mobile node 102G may be configured tobroadcast a purposely malformed introductory beacon 116, such that othernodes 102 in the wireless network 100 will ignore the broadcasts andonly the coordinator 110 will respond to the introductory beacons. Themessage type, format, and content of the malformed introductory beacon116 may depend on the specification or protocol of the wireless network100. For example, in a ZIGBEE network, the mobile node 102G maybroadcast a router cost table update message containing invalid orunrealistic values. Router nodes 102 in the ZIGBEE network may beconfigured to ignore the router cost table update messages, andtherefore will not respond to malformed introductory beacons 116broadcast by the mobile nodes 102G.

According to some embodiments, the coordinator 110 of the wirelessnetwork 100 may receive the malformed introductory beacon 116, perhapsthrough one or more router nodes 102 on the wireless network 100, andmay respond directly to the mobile node 102G. For example, in the ZIGBEEnetwork, the coordinator 110 may be configured to, upon parsing theinvalid or unrealistic values in the router cost table update message,respond directly to the mobile node 102G indicating that an invalidrouter cost table update message was received.

At block 320 (receive response from coordinator), the wirelessnetworking module 106 on the mobile node 102G may receive the responseto the malformed introductory beacon 116 from the coordinator 110.

At block 330 (initiate introductory transmission directly withcoordinator), upon receiving the response from the coordinator 110, thewireless networking module 106 on the mobile node 102G may be configuredto initiate an introductory transmission directly with the coordinator110, bypassing other nodes 102 of the wireless network 100. For example,the mobile node 102G may engage in a unicast discovery process directlywith the coordinator 110 as defined by the specification or protocol ofthe wireless network 100, instead of broadcasting introductory beacons112 to some or all nodes 102 within range of the mobile node. Theunicast discovery process may take place in subsequent beacon periods.After block 330, the process 300 may either repeat (e.g., periodically,continuously, or on demand as needed) or terminate.

The process 300 may be backward compatible with the specification orprotocol of the wireless network 100, and therefore neither thecoordinator 110 nor the other nodes 102 on the wireless network 100 mayneed to be reconfigured in order for the process to successfullysuppress the response of the nodes to the malformed introductory beacons116 sent by the mobile node 102G. However, the process 300 may require,in at least some implementations, the extra operation of broadcastingthe malformed introductory beacons 116, lengthening the overalldiscovery process for the mobile node 102G.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating a further process 400 forsuppressing the response of one or more nodes 102 in the wirelessnetwork 100 to the introductory beacons 112 broadcast by a mobile node102G moving through the network, according to at least some embodimentspresented herein. The process 400 may be performed by the wirelessnetworking module 106 on the coordinator 110A of the wireless network100, or may be performed by a combination of modules and components onthe coordinators 110, the mobile node 102G, and/or other nodes anddevices in the wireless network 100. The process 400 may include one ormore operations, functions or actions as illustrated by blocks 410, 420,and 430 in FIG. 4. The process 400 may begin at block 410 (detect mobilenode moving through network). Block 410 may be followed by block 420(send suppression signal to nodes in network). Block 420 may be followedby block 430 (multicast information regarding mobile node to othernetwork coordinators). After block 430, processing may either repeat(e.g., periodically, continuously, or on demand as needed) or terminate.Further details about each block will be described below.

At block 410 (detect mobile node moving through network), the wirelessnetworking module 106 on the coordinator 110A may be configured todetect the mobile node 102G moving through the physical topology of thewireless network 100. The coordinator 110A may recognize the movement ofthe mobile node 102G by receiving successive introductory beacons 112from the mobile node 102G through different router nodes 102 in thewireless network 100, for example. In another example, the mobile node102G may embed supplementary information 114 in the introductory beacons112 that indicates the device containing the node is a mobile device,which may be recognized by the coordinator 110A. Other methodologies maybe imagined by one skilled in the art for the coordinator 110A to detectthe movement of the mobile node 102G through the wireless network 100,and it is intended that this application include all such methodologies.

At block 420 (send suppression signal to nodes in network), upondetecting the movement of the mobile node 102G through the wirelessnetwork 100, the wireless networking module 106 on the coordinator 110Amay be configured to send out a suppression signal 118 to the slave orchild nodes 102A-102C of the coordinator 110A that will cause thosenodes 102A-102C to ignore the introductory beacons 112 broadcast by themobile node 102G. The message type, format, and content of thesuppression signal 118 may depend on the specification or protocol ofthe wireless network 100. For example, in a ZIGBEE network, thecoordinator 110A may broadcast a router table update message to thechild nodes 102A-102C containing a significantly high cost value forcommunicating directly with the mobile node 102G as compared to otherroutes through the wireless network 100.

The child nodes 102A-102C in the ZIGBEE network, having a path to themobile node 102G defined in their router tables, may be configured notto respond to the introductory beacons 112 broadcast by the mobile node102G. In addition, because of the significantly high cost value forcommunicating directly with the mobile node 102G in their router table,the child nodes 102A-102C in the wireless network 100 may send some orall communications with the mobile node 102G through the coordinator110A, instead of directly communicating with the mobile node 102G.Therefore, mutual knowledge between the nodes need not be established asin the case of the conventional discovery process.

At block 430 (multicast information regarding mobile node to othernetwork coordinators), the wireless networking module 106 on thecoordinator 110A may further be configured to send a hand-off message120 to other coordinators, such as coordinator 110B shown in FIG. 1. Thehand-off message 120 may contain information regarding the location ormobile nature of the mobile node 102G, allowing the other coordinators110B to broadcast the suppression signal 118 to their child nodes, suchas nodes 102D-102F. In this implementation, the coordinators 110 mayoperate similar to cell phone towers, passing along responsibility forhandling the moving mobile node 102G from one coordinator to the next.After block 430, the process 400 may either repeat (e.g., periodically,continuously, or on demand as needed) or terminate.

It will be appreciated that the process 400 described above may require,in at least some implementations, the coordinators 110 of the wirelessnetwork 100 to be configured to recognize the moving mobile node 102Gand to send the suppression signals 118 and hand-off messages 120, whichmay be beyond the specification or protocol of the wireless network 100.In addition, depending on the methodology utilized by the coordinator110A to detect the moving mobile node 102G, several discovery processesmay take place between some nodes 102 of the wireless network 100 andthe mobile node 102G before the suppression signal 118 may be sent. Inorder for normal discovery to resume, the coordinator 110A may furtherstart a timer upon sending the suppression signal 118, and once thetimer expires, broadcast additional messages to clean-up the routertables of the other nodes 102 in the wireless network 100. In this way,the suppression of device discovery of the mobile node 102G may betemporary.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an example computing device 10arranged according to at least some embodiments presented herein. Thecomputing device 10 may include a processor 11, a memory 12 and one ormore drives 13. The drives 13 and their associated computer storagemedia may provide storage of computer readable instructions, datastructures, program modules, and other data for the computing device 10.The computing device may be adapted to support embodiments forsuppressing discovery of mobile devices in a wireless ubicomp network.For example, the computing device may include the mobile node 102G orthe coordinator 110A in the wireless network 100 previously describedherein. Various embodiments may include computers, dedicated hardware,or embedded computing devices.

The computing device 10 may be implemented as a conventional computersystem, an embedded controller or processor, a laptop, a servercomputer, a mobile device, a set-top box, a kiosk, a vehicularinformation system, a mobile telephone, a customized machine, or someother hardware platform. The processor 11 may be a general purposeprocessor, a processor core, a multiprocessor, a multicore processor, agraphics processor, a digital signal processing (DSP) processor, acustomized computing device implemented within an application specificintegrated circuit (ASIC), a customized computing device implementedwithin a field programmable gate array (FPGA), a customized computingdevice implemented within any type of programmable logic, a statemachine, a reconfigurable processor, any other processing unit, or anycombination or multiplicity thereof. The processor 11 may supportparallel dynamic optimization leveraging multicore processors asdiscussed herein.

The drives 13, other storage devices, or their associatedcomputer-readable storage media may store an operating system 21,application programs 22, and program modules 23. The computing device 10may include user input devices 15 through which a user may entercommands and data. Input devices may include physical sensors, amicrophone, an electronic digitizer, a keyboard, a pointing device, orany combination thereof. Examples of pointing devices may include amouse, trackball, light pen, touch screen, or touch pad. Other inputdevices to the computing device 10 may include a joystick, game pad,satellite dish, scanner, or the like. Input devices may be coupled toprocessor 11 through a user input interface that is coupled to a systembus. The input devices may also be coupled by other interface and busstructures, such as a parallel port, game port or a universal serial bus(USB). Computers such as computing device 10 may also include otherperipheral output devices such as speakers, which may be coupled throughan output peripheral interface 19 or similar interface.

The computing device 10 may operate in a networked environment usinglogical connections to one or more computers, such as a remote computercoupled to network interface 16. The remote computer may be a personalcomputer, a server, a router, a network PC, a peer device, or othercommon network node. The remote computer may include many or all of theelements described herein relative to the computing device 10.Networking environments may include wide-area networks (WAN), local areanetworks (LAN), intranets, the Internet, or combinations thereof.

When used in a LAN networking environment, the computing device 10 maybe coupled to the LAN through the network interface 16 or a networkadapter. When used in a WAN networking environment, the computing device10 may include a modem or other mechanism for establishingcommunications over the WAN. The WAN may include the Internet, variousother networks, or any combination thereof. It should be appreciatedthat other mechanisms of establishing a communications link, ring, mesh,bus, cloud, or network between computers may be used. According to someembodiments, the computing device 10 may connect to other nodes 102,coordinators 110, and other devices over the wireless network 100through the network interface 16. The network interface 16 may includethe radio 108 described above in regard to FIG. 1 to provide wirelessnetworking services for the computing device 10 on the wireless network100.

According to at least some embodiments, computing device 10 may beconfigured such that the processor 11 and/or program modules 23 mayperform suppression of discovery of mobile devices in a wireless networkin accordance with various embodiments presented herein. The computingdevice 10 may include one or more instances of a physicalcomputer-readable storage medium or media associated with drives 13 orother storage devices. The system bus may enable the processor 11 toread code and/or data to/from the computer-readable storage media. Themedia may represent an apparatus in the form of storage elements thatare implemented using any suitable technology, including but not limitedto semiconductors, magnetic materials, optical media, electricalstorage, electrochemical storage, or any other such storage technology.The media may represent components associated with memory 12, whethercharacterized as RAM, ROM, flash, or other types of volatile ornonvolatile memory technology. The media may also represent secondarystorage, whether implemented as the storage drives 13 or otherwise. Harddrive implementations may be characterized as solid state, or mayinclude rotating media storing magnetically-encoded information.

The storage media may include one or more program modules 23 forsuppressing discovery of mobile devices in a wireless ubicomp network,such as the wireless networking module 106 described herein. The programmodules 23 may include software instructions that, when loaded into theprocessor 11 and executed, transform a general-purpose computing systeminto a special-purpose computing device customized to facilitate all, orpart of, the discovery suppression techniques disclosed herein. Asdetailed throughout this description, the program modules 23 may providevarious tools or techniques by which the computing device 10 mayparticipate within the overall systems or operating environments usingthe components, logic flows, and/or data structures discussed herein.

The processor 11 may be constructed from any number of transistors orother circuit elements, which may individually or collectively assumeany number of states. More specifically, the processor 11 may operate asa state machine or finite-state machine. Such a machine may betransformed to a second machine, or specific machine by loadingexecutable instructions contained within the program modules 23. Thesecomputer-executable instructions may transform the processor 11 byspecifying how the processor 11 transitions between states, therebytransforming the transistors or other circuit elements constituting theprocessor 11 from a first machine to a second machine, wherein thesecond machine may be specifically configured to support secure wirelessnetwork pairing using radio channel metrics. The states of eithermachine may also be transformed by receiving input from one or more userinput devices 15, network interfaces 16, other peripherals, otherinterfaces, or one or more users or other actors. Either machine mayalso transform states, or various physical characteristics of variousoutput devices such as controllers, printers, speakers, video displays,or otherwise.

Encoding the program modules 23 may also transform the physicalstructure of the storage media. The specific transformation of physicalstructure may depend on various factors, in different implementations ofthis description. Examples of such factors may include, but are notlimited to: the technology used to implement the storage media, whetherthe storage media are characterized as primary or secondary storage, orthe like. For example, if the storage media are implemented assemiconductor-based memory, the program modules 23 may transform thephysical state of the semiconductor memory 12 when the software isencoded therein. For example, the software may transform the state oftransistors, capacitors, or other discrete circuit elements constitutingthe semiconductor memory 12.

As another example, the storage media may be implemented using magneticor optical technology such as drives 13. In such implementations, theprogram modules 23 may transform the physical state of magnetic oroptical media, when the software is encoded therein. Thesetransformations may include altering the magnetic characteristics ofparticular locations within given magnetic media. These transformationsmay also include altering the physical features or characteristics ofparticular locations within given optical media, to change the opticalcharacteristics of those locations. It should be appreciated thatvarious other transformations of physical media are possible withoutdeparting from the scope and spirit of the present description.

Turning now to FIG. 6, a schematic illustrates a partial view of anexample computer program product 600 that includes a computer programfor executing a computer process on a computing device, arrangedaccording to at least some embodiments presented herein. An illustrativeembodiment of the example computer program product is provided using asignal bearing medium 602, and may include at least one instruction of604: one or more instructions for adding supplementary information to anintroductory beacon transmitted by a mobile computing device; one ormore instructions for detecting a mobile device moving through awireless network; one or more instructions for transmitting asuppression signal to devices participating in the wireless network; orone or more instructions for multicasting information regarding themobile device to another coordinating device of the wireless network.

The one or more instructions may be, for example, computer executableand/or logic implemented instructions. In some embodiments, the signalbearing medium 602 of the one or more computer program products 600include a computer-readable medium 606, a recordable medium 608, and/ora communications medium 610.

In some implementations, signal bearing medium 602 may encompass acomputer-readable medium 606, such as, but not limited to, a hard diskdrive, a Compact Disc (CD), a Digital Video Disk (DVD), a digital tape,memory, etc. In some implementations, signal bearing medium 602 mayencompass a recordable medium 608, such as, but not limited to, memory,read/write (R/W) CDs, R/W DVDs, etc. In some implementations, signalbearing medium 602 may encompass a communications medium 610, such as,but not limited to, a digital and/or an analog communication medium(e.g., a fiber optic cable, a waveguide, a wired communications link, awireless communication link, etc.). Thus, for example, computer programproduct 600 may be conveyed to one or more modules of the describedsystems by an RF signal bearing medium 602, where the signal bearingmedium 602 is conveyed by a wireless form of communications medium 610(e.g., a wireless communications medium conforming with the IEEE 802.11standard).

The present disclosure is not to be limited in terms of the particularembodiments described in this application, which are intended asillustrations of various aspects. Many modifications and variations canbe made without departing from its spirit and scope, as will be apparentto those skilled in the art. Functionally equivalent methods andapparatuses within the scope of the disclosure, in addition to thoseenumerated herein, will be apparent to those skilled in the art from theforegoing descriptions. Such modifications and variations are intendedto fall within the scope of the appended claims. The present disclosureis to be limited only by the terms of the appended claims, along withthe full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled. It isto be understood that this disclosure is not limited to particularmethods, components, elements, apparatuses, or systems, which can, ofcourse, vary. It is also to be understood that the terminology usedherein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only, andis not intended to be limiting.

With respect to the use of substantially any plural and/or singularterms herein, those having skill in the art can translate from theplural to the singular and/or from the singular to the plural as isappropriate to the context and/or application. The varioussingular/plural permutations may be expressly set forth herein for sakeof clarity.

It will be understood by those within the art that, in general, termsused herein, and especially in the appended claims (e.g., bodies of theappended claims) are generally intended as “open” terms (e.g., the term“including” should be interpreted as “including but not limited to,” theterm “having” should be interpreted as “having at least,” the term“includes” should be interpreted as “includes but is not limited to,”etc.).

It will be further understood by those within the art that if a specificnumber of an introduced claim recitation is intended, such an intentwill be explicitly recited in the claim, and in the absence of suchrecitation no such intent is present. For example, as an aid tounderstanding, the following appended claims may contain usage of theintroductory phrases “at least one” and “one or more” to introduce claimrecitations. However, the use of such phrases should not be construed toimply that the introduction of a claim recitation by the indefinitearticles “a” or “an” limits any particular claim containing suchintroduced claim recitation to embodiments containing only one suchrecitation, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases“one or more” or “at least one” and indefinite articles such as “a” or“an” (e.g., “a” and/or “an” should be interpreted to mean “at least one”or “one or more”); the same holds true for the use of definite articlesused to introduce claim recitations. In addition, even if a specificnumber of an introduced claim recitation is explicitly recited, thoseskilled in the art will recognize that such recitation should beinterpreted to mean at least the recited number (e.g., the barerecitation of “two recitations,” without other modifiers, means at leasttwo recitations, or two or more recitations).

In instances where a convention analogous to “at least one of A, B, andC, etc.” is used, in general such a construction is intended in thesense one having skill in the art would understand the convention (e.g.,“a system having at least one of A, B, and C” would include but not belimited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and Btogether, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and Ctogether, etc.). In those instances where a convention analogous to “atleast one of A, B, or C, etc.” is used, in general such a constructionis intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understandthe convention (e.g., “a system having at least one of A, B, or C” wouldinclude but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, Calone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A,B, and C together, etc.). It will be further understood by those withinthe art that virtually any disjunctive word and/or phrase presenting twoor more alternative terms, whether in the description, claims, ordrawings, should be understood to contemplate the possibilities ofincluding one of the terms, either of the terms, or both terms. Forexample, the phrase “A or B” will be understood to include thepossibilities of “A” or “B” or “A and B.”

In addition, where features or aspects of the disclosure are describedin terms of Markush groups, those skilled in the art will recognize thatthe disclosure is also thereby described in terms of any individualmember or subgroup of members of the Markush group.

As will be understood by one skilled in the art, for any and allpurposes, such as in terms of providing a written description, allranges disclosed herein also encompass any and all possible subrangesand combinations of subranges thereof. Any listed range can be easilyrecognized as sufficiently describing and enabling the same range beingbroken down into at least equal halves, thirds, quarters, fifths,tenths, etc. As a non-limiting example, each range discussed herein canbe readily broken down into a lower third, middle third and upper third,etc. As will also be understood by one skilled in the art all languagesuch as “up to,” “at least,” “greater than,” “less than,” and the likeinclude the number recited and refer to ranges which can be subsequentlybroken down into subranges as discussed above. Finally, as will beunderstood by one skilled in the art, a range includes each individualmember. Thus, for example, a group having 1-3 elements refers to groupshaving 1, 2, or 3 elements. Similarly, a group having 1-5 elementsrefers to groups having 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 elements, and so forth.

While various aspects and examples have been disclosed herein, otheraspects and examples will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Thevarious aspects and examples disclosed herein are for purposes ofillustration and are not intended to be limiting, with the true scopeand spirit being indicated by the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method that reducesnetwork transmissions in a wireless network, the method comprising:suppressing, by a computing device, a response of a device participatingin the wireless network to an introductory beacon transmitted by amobile device moving through the wireless network, wherein the responseof the device to the introductory beacon transmitted by the mobiledevice is suppressed by receiving a signal that is ignored by the deviceparticipating in the wireless network except for a coordinating deviceof the wireless network.
 2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1,wherein the signal is a malformed introductory beacon.
 3. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the coordinating deviceof the wireless network is configured to respond to the malformedintroductory beacon transmitted by the mobile device and directlyrespond to the mobile device by indicating that the malformedintroductory beacon was received.
 4. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 2, wherein the coordinating device of the wireless network isconfigured to respond to the malformed introductory beacon transmittedby the mobile device causing the mobile device to engaging in a unicastdiscovery process directly with the coordinating device of the wirelessnetwork.
 5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein thesignal is a suppression signal that is received from the coordinatingdevice of the wireless network after the coordinating device detects themobile device moving through the wireless network.
 6. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the detecting the mobiledevice moving through the wireless network by the coordinating device ofthe wireless network further comprises receiving embedded supplementaryinformation in the introductory beacon transmitted by the mobile devicethat indicates the mobile device is a mobile device.
 7. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein slave or child nodes ofthe coordinating device of the wireless network send communications withthe mobile device through the coordinating device of the wirelessnetwork to prevent mutual knowledge between the slave or child nodes 8.A computer-implemented method that suppresses responses of devicesparticipating in a wireless network to an introductory beacontransmitted by a mobile device moving through the wireless network, themethod comprising: transmitting, by a computing device, a malformedintroductory beacon from the mobile device to a neighboring device inthe wireless network, wherein the neighboring device in the wirelessnetwork is configured to ignore the malformed introductory beacon;receiving, by the computing device, a response to the malformedintroductory beacon from a coordinating device of the wireless network;and upon receiving the response from the coordinating device,initiating, by the computing device, an introduction transmission fromthe mobile device directly to the coordinating device.
 9. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the malformedintroductory beacon comprises a router cost table update transmissiondefined in a standards specification for the wireless network.
 10. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the malformedintroductory beacon comprises invalid values.
 11. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the malformedintroductory beacon includes data that is ignored by devicesparticipating in the wireless network except for the coordinating deviceof the wireless network.
 12. The computer-implemented method of claim 8,wherein initiating the introduction transmission comprises initiatingthe introduction transmission directly with the coordinating device. 13.The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the mobile deviceengages in a unicast discovery process with the coordinating device. 14.The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the wireless networkcomprises a ZIGBEE network.
 15. A non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereonthat, when executed by a coordinating device of a wireless network,cause the coordinating device to: detect a mobile device moving throughthe wireless network; and transmit a suppression signal to devicesparticipating in the wireless network, wherein a device participating inthe wireless network is configured to, upon receiving the suppressionsignal from the coordinating device, ignore an introductory beacontransmitted by the mobile device.
 16. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein detecting themobile device moving through the wireless network comprises receivingembedded supplementary information in the introductory beacon.
 17. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein thesuppression signal transmitted by the coordinating device is a routingtable update transmission defined in a standards specification for thewireless network having a high cost associated with the mobile device.18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15,wherein the suppression signal comprises invalid values.
 19. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein thewireless network is a wireless personal-area network (WPAN).
 20. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, havingfurther computer-executable instructions stored thereon that cause thecoordinating device to, upon detecting the mobile device moving throughthe wireless network, multicast information regarding the mobile deviceto another coordinating device of the wireless network.